Garry McCoy takes his sliding antics to the slopes of Andorra

Garry McCoy takes his sliding antics to the slopes of Andorra

Firstly I´d like to wish everybody Happy New Year and I hope you are all looking forward to the start of what promises to be a truly memorable 2002 for MotoGP. I have spent Christmas and New Year at my home in Andorra and it has been great to relax and take a break from the hectic travelling we have throughout the year. After the last race in Rio I went back Australia for three weeks to see the family but I couldn´t wait to get back to Europe and hit the slopes!

Skiing is a great way to have fun and keep fit and up here where I live in Andorra I get to go out every day. This week I´ve taken up snowboarding too, which I´d never tried before. It´s a real laugh but I couldn´t believe how tiring it is. When I get home I just have to crash out on the sofa because I´m so tired. I had been going to the gym every day too but after I´ve been snowboarding I can´t find the energy for any more exercise!

I was in Sepang before Christmas doing some tests with the Red Bull Yamaha squad on Dunlop tyres. It was a very constructive few days, we set some fast times and we were happy with the performance of the tyres. Sepang is extremely hot which is perhaps not ideal for Dunlop, and some of the compounds we tested were not really suitable, but they will be great at other circuits and I´m sure that over the course of the season they will prove to be the right choice for us.

I´m often asked if my style is more suited to Dunlop tyres, but the truth is that I don´t really have a favourite. There are differences in how they work with the ground and, whilst I am used to Michelin now, it is just a case of getting used to Dunlop. I know that my old team-mate Nori Haga prefers Dunlop because they move around a lot more and they are probably a little more forgiving, but I never really had a problem with Michelin at all.

The team are fixing up the next test which hopefully won´t be too long away. I´m looking forward to getting back on the bike but for the moment the only sliding I´ll be doing is on a snowboard!